{"id":45080,"date":"2021-02-05T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/industry\/blog\/?p=45080"},"modified":"2021-02-18T12:04:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T11:04:11","slug":"how-evolv-are-using-azure-devops-to-help-develop-affordable-rehabilitation-technologies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-gb\/industry\/blog\/technetuk\/2021\/02\/05\/how-evolv-are-using-azure-devops-to-help-develop-affordable-rehabilitation-technologies\/","title":{"rendered":"How Evolv are using Azure DevOps to help develop affordable rehabilitation technologies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

Evolv is a medical device manufacturer that specialises in developing affordable rehabilitation technologies for neurorehabilitation, orthopaedic rehabilitation and healthy ageing. Our flagship product EvolvRehab uses the latest in Virtual Reality and motion capture technologies combined with gamification to complement traditional therapy methods. We help increase access to and intensity of specialised therapy for persons of all ages and levels of disability.<\/p>\n

EvolvRehab has been used in over 20 countries around the world and has been rolled out in hospitals, clinics, residential care homes, patient associations and used by patients in their homes through the Evolv telerehabilitation service. We work extensively with different Microsoft services such as Azure, Teams, Power BI, and products including the Azure Kinect, as well as working with Microsoft on various healthcare initiatives around the world.<\/p>\n

We just recently started using Azure DevOps – it’s really changed how we operate, to be honest with you. When Alba Castell\u00f3n de Frias came on board as Program Manager she brought previous knowledge and experience of working with DevOps with her, and while our parent company had recently begun to use DevOps, we hadn\u2019t yet incorporated it into Evolv. Alba had used it extensively in her former job, so we made the transition to using DevOps based on Alba\u2019s recommendations and deep knowledge of how to use it to make development work more efficient.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Starting the DevOps Journey<\/h2>\n

Getting started with Azure DevOps took us approximately a month, taking into account that it was not a full time task; we had to combine it with others tasks while still working on CI\/CD. Because of this, we first used Azure DevOps for source control.<\/p>\n

When we decided to go further with Azure DevOps the first decision was to choose the process template, and our decision was to use Agile. Once we had Agile for processes it was time to start with the backlog, gathering\u00a0any and all ideas, features and bugs from across other documents and get them all in one centralised location.<\/p>\n

From there, Alba created Personas in Azure DevOps to keep the focus on the end users – who we’re developing for and what their requirements are. Creating user stories allow us to deliver the highest value by focusing on small and immediate customer needs and creating bug reports on all known technical issues.<\/p>\n

In our case, as we have a rehabilitation therapy platform, our end user is ultimately the patients. There are also the therapists working with the patients, as well as administrators at therapy centres, so we have to make sure our platform checks the right boxes for each and every one of them.<\/p>\n

We then get a view of what’s being developed for who, what boxes are being checked, what the timeline for each feature looks like and any bugs that have been found along the way. It’s a great way to visualise how the application and its features are coming together.<\/p>\n

This is useful even for the people in the company that are not technical, as they can use Azure DevOps to log bugs and feature ideas while using the EvolvRehab application. Our sales and clinical team also use it to directly report bugs, upload potential new features recommended by clinicians and patients, as well as see what\u2019s happening in the dev pipeline which may influence conversations with existing and potential clients.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Developer Experience<\/h2>\n

\"aGorka Yanguas is a developer here at Evolv. We asked him for his thoughts on Azure DevOps and what the process has been like adopting it.<\/p>\n

Azure DevOps has made the\u00a0development process very agile. The process of committing changes and pushing them with Git is so much clearer than it was before, and the sprint and backlog windows are so helpful in being able to track user stories and bugs.<\/p>\n

I didn’t personally have any prior experience with DevOps. That said, it took me very little time to get used to it, as everything is pretty intuitive even for someone who may not have heard of every concept used in Azure.<\/p>\n

Personally, I really like the combination of Azure DevOps with a version control system such as Git. It makes tracking the development and testing of a project really clear, and the fact that it brings a lot of automatisation to the mix is the cherry on top.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alba’s advice for using DevOps<\/h2>\n

My advice would be to start using DevOps and to not be afraid of change – whether you use Agile, Scrum or something else, see how it goes and you’ll know whether or not it’s right for you.\u00a0Start with the backlog – as you’ll have a better picture of your project and the changes you want to track when it’s all in one place.<\/p>\n

From there you should play with the Azure DevOps dashboard – out of the box it comes with lots of metrics that you’ll find incredibly useful, and when you’re ready to go further, start looking at pipelines, continuous integration and continuous deployment as these will really make the difference.<\/p>\n

These metrics are also really good for efficiency, as it allows you to see how long certain features or processes are being worked on. It’s then possible to be reactive and adjust how things work going forward.\u00a0It also means that you don’t have to ask developers what they’re doing, as it’s all tracked within Azure DevOps.<\/p>\n

Once you’re comfortable, you can start to use extensions to customise your experience. We’re currently using several extensions as part of our workflow:<\/p>\n